Raipur: As the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections are inching closer, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has released the second list of candidates for the upcoming polls, which includes Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC) founder Ajit Jogi's daughter-in-law Richa Jogi's name. As mentioned in the list of candidates, the former Chhattisgarh chief minister's daughter-in-law will be contesting polls from Akaltara constituency in Janjgir-Champa district.

File image of Congress leader Ajit Jogi. AFP

Akaltara seat is at present being represented by Chunnilal Sahu of Congress. It is believed that Richa Jogi has played a major role in constructing the two-year-old party founded by Ajit Jogi after the latter broke away from the Congress in 2016. The four-member Jogi family, comprising Ajit, his wife Renu, son Amit and daughter-in-law Richa, now belong to three political parties- JCC, BSP and the Congress.

On Friday, Amit Jogi announced that his father Ajit will not contest the upcoming state assembly elections, but will instead campaign for the alliance parties. On 20 September, BSP supremo Mayawati at a press conference nominated Jogi as the chief ministerial candidate. A pre-poll alliance between the BSP and JCC was also announced on the same day. Around eight months prior to this, Jogi had reportedly said that he would contest from the Rajanandgaon seat against incumbent Chief Minister Raman Singh. The JCC on Sunday announced an alliance with the CPI in order to strengthen their foothold in the Naxal-hit Bastar region. The Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in two phases on 12 and 20 November. The results will be announced on 11 December.